Rensselaer Man Who Received Child Pornography Sentenced

Defendant Who Received and Possessed Hundreds of Child Pornography Images Sentenced to 60 Months of Imprisonment

ALBANY—United States Attorney Richard S. Hartunian and Clifford C. Holly, special agent in charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Albany Division, announced that JASON BURNASH, age 31, of Rensselaer, New York, was sentenced by United States District Court Judge Thomas J. McAvoy in Federal District Court in Albany, on his guilty plea to one count of receiving child pornography. BURNASH was sentenced to 60 months of imprisonment. Following his term of imprisonment, BURNASH will be placed on supervised release for 30 years. BURNASH was also ordered to: (1) have no unsupervised contact with minors; and (2) register with the New York State Sex Offender Registry Program.

In February 2011, investigators seized BURNASH’s computer after receiving information that the computer contained images of child pornography. The computer was forensically examined and found to contain hundreds of images of child pornography that had been downloaded by BURNASH. BURNASH pled guilty on October 27, 2011 to receiving child pornography via the Internet.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Rensselaer Police Department.